Is It Ho Ho Ho . . . Or Trick Or Treat? Merchants Stocking Up Shelves With Halloween, Christmas Items

Though Halloween is almost three weeks away, it is already Christmas in local stores. Store shelves have been stocked for weeks with Christmas gear, and more is arriving daily. Jack-o'-lanterns and witch costumes are vying for space with tinsel, Santa candles and fake snow.

Customers, often clad in halter tops and shorts, are snapping it up, store managers say. Some buy impulsively. Others worry they will miss out if they wait.

One woman has been calling weekly to get first dibs on a white artificial tree, said Neil Meyer, manager of Eckerd Drugs in Mount Dora. People who wait until they feel Christmasy get caught short, he warned. ''All the good stuff will be gone and you'll be left with what nobody wanted,'' he said.

Managers say they're not trying to rush the season. It's just easier to display newly arrived Christmas goods immediately than to store them in a back room and bring them out after Halloween, they say.

No sentimental customers have complained that merchants are extending the season beyond its proper time, said Jon Kurpil, assistant manager at Wal- Mart's in Eustis. Some, in fact, have complained that Christmas cards should have hit the stands earlier.

Stores that specialize in Christmas goods say business tends to pick up in October after the slow summer season. Snowbirds start drifting in to select wreaths and imported Christmas ornaments, said Monica Mattiucci, owner of Christmas Year Round in Lady Lake. They keep on buying all winter, months after Christmas is over, she said.

Dolores Whitten of Detroit, browsing through the ceramic angels and Santa tea towels at The Gables in Mount Dora, said she likes plenty of time to plan the holidays. ''If I wait, everything I want will be gone,'' she said ''Shopping gets me into the Christmas spirit early.''

However, merchants say that selling Christmas wares in a heat wave weeks before Halloween doesn't put them in a joyous mood.

''We'll get in the Christmas spirit after Thanksgiving,'' said Meyer of Eckerd Drugs. ''We'll have all our work done before anybody else and can just relax.''